4: Outcomes (learning outcomes for items)

Updated 19 Feb 2024

A portion of the Create/Edit Assignment page shows five numbered horizontal tabs with the labels: 1 Settings, 2 Settings, 3 Organization, 4 Outcomes, 5 Dates and Follow-Up

The 4 Outcomes page may initially list publisher items in the assignment with their associated learning outcomes. Learning outcomes help you assess and report on student understanding or skills, based on assignment results. More about learning outcomes.

Watch a video: Create and assess learning outcomes

The availability of publisher-provided learning outcomes can vary by textbook. Mastering doesn’t provide learning outcomes for any custom My Items you might create.

However, you can create new learning outcomes (My Learning Items) to associate with My Items. You can base these on provided outcomes if you edited publisher-provided items to create the My Items.

  1. As you're creating or editing an assignment, select 4 Outcomes.
  2. Select the Choose button in an item row to review the selected outcome or outcomes for the item.

If you’re satisfied with the current outcomes, or if you don't plan to use learning outcomes, select the 5 Dates and Follow-Up page or select Skip this step to move on to that same page.

  1. As you are creating or editing an assignment, select 4 Outcomes.

    All items in the assignment are listed, with any currently associated learning outcomes shown in the item row in the Learning Outcomes column.

  2. To display only My Learning Outcomes, select Hide Provided Learning Outcomes. (This hides publisher-provided learning outcomes.)

  3. To display a brief description of each item, select Show Descriptions. (See image above.) To view the entire item, select an item title.
  4. To create a My Learning Outcome, select Add/Edit My Learning Outcomes.
  5. To choose or remove outcomes for that item, select the Choose button in an item row.
  6. Select one or more learning outcomes to associate with the item, or clear a check box to remove the association with that outcome.

    Your work is automatically saved.

    Tip: If you're editing an existing assignment, you can select any other numbered page in the Create/Edit Assignment process. For editing, you don't need to move through the pages in sequence.

  • Your learning outcome associations apply to this assignment only.

    If the same item is in another assignment and you want to add or change its learning outcomes, specify learning outcomes in the other assignment also.

  • If you copy the assignment or copy the entire course, your edits to My Learning Outcomes ARE copied.

    All of the associations with items are also copied, unless a provided learning outcome from the original course is not included in the newly copied course.

  • If you want the learning outcome results to reflect only one attempt to answer each question, apply the Quiz or Test category for the assignment.

    (By default, the Homework category allows students multiple answer attempts per question.)

See also: About learning outcomes | Create or edit learning outcomes | Copy learning outcomes from other courses | Assess learning outcome results | Print or export learning outcomes and results